Re: Ecsatic worhsip vs Sacrifice

From: Alex Ferguson <abf_at_cs.ucc.ie>
Date: Tue, 23 May 2000 03:49:06 +0100 (BST)


Chris Bell:
> Perhaps a better way to view the God, Sorcery and Spirit worlds are modes of
> consciousness which, for game play, have been easily divided into the
> God/Sorcery/Spirit worlds. Certain entities, like Rufleza/Natha and Storm
> Bull, straddle these worlds. My feeling is that these worlds are not so
> much God Learner constructs as *human* and other sentient constructs, and
> each world has a different psychic vibe or feel that makes it more or less
> accessible to certain mindsets.

As _systems_, they're quite clearly God Learner (and rules) constructions. Obviously they they're not constructed out of whole cloth, and have a greater or lesser validity as 'clustered states of similar consciousness', but the business of _classifying_ them into a particular groups is not simply a matter of observing a number of clearly pre-existing types, and slotting each member in according, but of _creating_ the types, into which you can then place the different practices, as seems most appropriate, whether clear or marginally. (Another exercise in discretising a continuum, basically.)

HW is pretty good in this respect, in a sense, since although it makes a big song and dance about the different 'types', it presents pretty much the same rules framework for them all, so if the category edges get 'blurry', then interpo9lating is just a matter of fudging a few side rules, not so much trying to evolve a mutant offspring of two totally different mechanics.

> I put forth that the the RuneQuest sight of
> the God Learners was the ability to see these worlds with a naked, objective
> and unprejudiced eye.

Add an allegedly, a purportedly, and a supposedly to that sentence and it'd be about right, I think...

> This also brings up another point... I would propose that Urox worshippers
> gain the benefits of both Sacrificial and Ecstatic worship.

Why? Is this to avoid the 'problem' of the 'same' entity yielding two distinct types of magic -- instead there's one god, giving the same handy conglomerate to all worshippers? Just because Orlanthi Uroxi drink enough beer to be animists isn't a great amount of evidence...

Cheers,
Alex.


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